Hate you had to do that, after working so long to finish it up. At least the firewall and long block look like they parted cleanly - no marks -

Guess the pushrod ends are in the pan - had to come out anyway you look at it.

Regards -

It definitely is a handful pulling a big block by yourself. I almost had it out and then had to drop it back down to close the garage door to get the engine & trans high enough to come out. lolI found a couple pieces in the valley of the heads and also had a tip fall out of the header...

Bouncing back to this thread...don't overlook a hydraulic roller if your going in that direction. I run one with hydro roller lifters in the race car and am very pleased with it.

No slop in your timing chain ? Cam timing retarded/advanced ? I would think if the valves were not closing(weak springs) you would have heard them floating something awful before catastrophic failure.

Back to a binding issue ,get a straight line measurement of a bent rod vs. true one and subtract the difference. How much are milled from the heads, gasket thickness ,deck height ? My guess is pushrod length obviously wasn't checked in assembly. Again a real mystery to me that motor ran fine for awhile before breakage Geometry problem.

No raw fuel in the headers ?

What was your run time? Was the initial "tick" immediate upon oil pressure coming up? Was it primed before start up ? I continue to find it hard to believe it was broken in prior to your purchase.

Goes without saying use an adjustable pushrod to obtain proper length this go around. They will vary with machining/cam/rotating assemblies which deviate from stock measurements. Sometimes per cylinder, per I/E. I'm into bigger cube small blocks but has to hold true for " the heavy engines" also.

I would have bet shrapnel made it's way to the bottom of the pan and "machining" to the filter--good for you. Keep us updated on your findings.

I like roller idea too. Hate to admit this if anyone didn't know but I have a 67 GTX with a 472 hemi. It's a 4 speed and when I bought it, it had a fair sized hydraulic in it and trying to drive slow it would buck around and acted terrible. The motor didn't have enough compression for it either. Took it out and put in a custom grind solid street roller and the motor is so much better to drive it's not funny. The thing is just an animal from 2500-6000. The roller lifters for it and they ones in my 383 were pricey tho. I got the GTX in Florida and my parents were in Florida and spend 3 months at a mobile home park. My dad takes his ford retractable down so the neighbors are used to cars around. We would try and drive the GTX through the park and it's bucking around with no manners. Elderly lady down the street told my dad something's wrong with that red car!

Bouncing back to this thread...don't overlook a hydraulic roller if your going in that direction. I run one with hydro roller lifters in the race car and am very pleased with it.Back to a binding issue ,get a straight line measurement of a bent rod vs. true one and subtract the difference. How much are milled from the heads, gasket thickness ,deck height ? My guess is pushrod length obviously wasn't checked in assembly. Again a real mystery to me that motor ran fine for awhile before breakage Geometry problem.

No raw fuel in the headers ?

What was your run time? Was the initial "tick" immediate upon oil pressure coming up? Was it primed before start up ? I continue to find it hard to believe it was broken in prior to your purchase.

Goes without saying use an adjustable pushrod to obtain proper length this go around. They will vary with machining/cam/rotating assemblies which deviate from stock measurements. Sometimes per cylinder, per I/E. I'm into bigger cube small blocks but has to hold true for " the heavy engines" also.

I would have bet shrapnel made it's way to the bottom of the pan and "machining" to the filter--good for you. Keep us updated on your findings.

No slop, Timing is dead on. I will degree the cam once I go back together with it. After dis-assembly its not as bad as I first thought. The valves were just kissing the pistons and no real damage has occurred. No debris in the oil pan and cylinder walls look great. I will be putting new bearings in the block & on the rods just because. I have checked the pushrod length and it is correct. At first I had thought the pistons were hitting the heads but that is not the case after claying. Same with the P to V there is 0.050" clearance there. I am going to chalk it up to engine not running for 7 plus years and things didnt want to play nice and after it bending the pushrods and me readjusting them it began to destroy the pushrods. After all the pushrods were 1010 mild steel so I guess I am fortunate because it destroyed them and not something else like a valve or piston or cam. Still not 100% yet on the cam. I am old school and I have a Crane blueprint cam I bought years ago. Its a solid flat tappet L78 cam that I may end up using since all I would need is lifters. I am going to go ahead and have the heads reworked and new springs installed and start putting it back together. If it fails again then Ill build another motor or go LSx (since I have the ECU, harness & forged shortblock sitting in the garage. Either way I am pushing forward.

As for the guy that built the engine; I have talked to him and he broke it in and drove it a couple times and when my father got the car he ran it quite a bit and even drove it up the street a couple times. He is not the type that would overlook details but everyone is human. The guy that did the heads has turned out to have a very bad rep in the area and is not longer in business so if there is a problem with heads Ill have the answer as to why and who. Nothing more I can do now but move on and build it back.

Thanks for any and all tips, replies or things to look for. Fortunately this is not my first or last rodeo.

Yup,I understand. For me I expect a certain feel when it gets back together--call it nostalgic. Choppy cam ,steep gears and loud. Add the smell of race fuel..not for everyone ,but the Z I want in the garage.

My boxes of parts are all in, but not for a cool project ! Older I get ,the more I always look for the positive....now you get to build it how you want it. Plus, engines are one of the more pleasurable tasks, IMO. Too bad you don't live closer ,picked up a test stand last year with nothing on it. Never used it yet. After having one on the dyno...twice, good feeling knowing it's tuned and ready to fire once you set it in.

Not really. This company you have either oven cured or air. I went with air. Just spray with a paint gun and let it air cure. Here is the gun I used and of course the Cerakote.

Great little gun for what I use it for. Put a regulator on it and run it at 30psi and you should get the same results I did. I would recommend to run some Paint Thinner through the gun first but other than that once you get the pressure set (just remember to check it often due to its sensitivity) and spray away. I have always had this done on motors I built in the past (newer LS engines) but never did it myself just sent them out and had another company do it.

Being that my bearing tolerance is at 0.003" on all the mains this coating will add 0.001" roughly so I will be where I want to be on tolerances. Next once I install new cam bearings and finish prepping the block and slick coating & thermal coating the pistons Ill do the rod bearings as well. Once the engine is broken in on the motor stand I am going to ceramic coat the headers with the high temp coating in the titanium color. (see last pic)

After about 4hrs I can see a little progress. Unfortunately, I cracked the collet on my air grinder tonight so I wont get much else done tonight.. Im guessing Ill have at least 40hrs in these heads. Here is a comparison shot of 2 of the intake runners that are untouched vs 2 that are roughed in. Hope to get a little more finished this weekend.

Thanks man. Its been a few years since I have ported a set of heads and those took me several weeks off and on and those were newer LS heads and of course were aluminum.. Little more progress from over the weekend. Slow going due to a small compressor. I think its time to bring ole green (60's Kellogg compressor) out of retirement.. Still roughing everything in little by little. Once I get the entire head roughed then Ill go back and finish out every port.